ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. – Students and faculty at Elizabeth City State University (ECSU) are being offered counseling after some unknowingly became participants in an emergency response drill Feb. 22 in response to the Northern Illinois University (NIU), which occurred eight days earlier.

During the drill, a campus police officer playing the role of a gunman entered into classrooms carrying a red plastic model gun. Some ECSU students and faculty received E-mail and text messages five days prior to the drill; however, others did not, according to Anthony Brown, vice chancellor of student affairs.

At 1:31 p.m. on the day of the drill, alert messages were sent out informing the campus community that a drill was to take place in Moore Hall. Assistant professor Jingbin Wang, whose American foreign policy class was taken hostage, was unaware of the drill, along with his students.

Wang said the “gunman” lined seven students against the wall and threatened to kill the student with the lowest grade point average. The “victims” were told that the man had been kicked out of school and required a lung transplant.

Wang added that he didn’t have time to consider whether the “gunman’s” weapon was real.

Ten minutes after the drill began, campus police restrained the man.

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